Challenge Overview
As parts of West Africa are being ravaged by the Ebola epidemic, stakeholders around the world are attempting to coordinate to identify the most effective ways to address the spread of disease.  One response, from USAID and partners, is to launch Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development in an effort to elicit innovative ideas focused on the role of healthcare workers.  To start, partner OpenIDEO has launched the first part of this initiative with a wide call for ideas.

The Duke Ebola Innovation Challenge offers a unique opportunity for Duke graduate and undergraduate students from diverse schools and disciplines to work together in teams of four to five to generate innovative ideas for the OpenIDEO Fighting Ebola Challenge.  

Sponsored by the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD), the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE), and the Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative (I&E).

How do I participate?
Register online by midnight October 23 to participate in an Innovation Challenge team.  You may register as an individual, as a partial team, or as a complete team.  If registering as an individual or partial team, we will match you with other students to create interdisciplinary teams.  If registering as a complete team, we encourage you to be sure that your team is interdisciplinary.  You will choose to work on one of two focus areas for the Challenge: 

1. Strengthening Health Worker Capacities: How might we enhance the protective equipment, care setting and tools in the field to empower and protect healthcare workers?
2. Boosting Tracking & Communication Abilities: How might we develop, test and rapidly deploy mobile solutions to facilitate data collection and analysis?

What is required?
As a participant, you are strongly encouraged to attend the Innovation Challenge Kickoff event the evening of Monday, October 27th (approximately one hour), and you are encouraged to send at least one of your team members to the optional workshop on Wednesday, October 29.  It is up to you and your team how much or how little time you will dedicate to the challenge and you will be required to submit a brief slide deck.  If your team is a finalist, at least a few members must attend the Finalist Presentations & Feedback session (two hours) on the evening of Wednesday, November 5th.

Schedule
Deadline to Register: October 23 at midnight
Kickoff Event & Teams Announced: October 27, 6:00pm; Fuqua School of Business McClendon Auditorium 
Workshop (optional): October 29, 6:00pm; Sanford School of Public Policy Rubenstein Hall 
Submissions Due: November 2 at midnight 
Finalist Presentations & Feedback Session: November 5, 6:00pm; Fuqua School of Business McClendon Auditorium
Deadline for OpenIDEO Challenge Idea Submission: November 7

Questions?  Email or

The final deadline for the Duke Start-Up Challenge is this October 30, 2014 at 11:59pm
 
Over $100,000 in prizes for all Duke students.
 
Student Competition Prizes
$50,000 Grand Prize (open to all Duke students)
$20,000 Best Undergraduate-led team
$5,000 AARP Foundation Prize for best project helping low income seniors
 
We also offer $10,000 in prizes in the separate Open Competition for alumni, faculty, staff, and student teams with non-student ideas.
 
In February, the top 60 student teams will be invited to create a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
During the summer, we offer $5,000 summer stipends for the top 7 teams (eligibility: Duke students must be working full-time on the startup over the summer with an intention to continue after the summer).
 
Next steps!
·  Submit your Idea Summary (see samples) on our competition page
·  Learn more about the Duke Start-Up Challenge
·  See some of the videos from last year's competitors (and two years ago)
·  Watch the Grand Finale Event with Max Hodak '12 from September 2014
·  Read interviews with this past year's Finalists
·  Twitter: @dukestart
·  Follow us on Facebook